Sunday, November 29, 2015

This is tonight's show which starts off with a feature on punk in the DDR. You can download the show here.

AUSSCHLAG - Kack Zukunft (Ostklotz Musikverlag)We started off with AuSSchlag who are from Bitterfield which was an industrial town known for its chemical production. From the arts standpoint, in 1959 there was a conference that sought to connect the working class with the artists of the day. But punk was outlawed in East German in 1981 and punks were branded enemies of the state. AuSSchlag were one of the first recorded bands from East Germany. They started in 1983 and this recording is from 1984. The song translates to mean “Shit Future”. According to an article titled “Did Punk rock have an impact on the wall coming down” In the late 1970s, there were only about two dozen punks in all of East Germany. A handful of teenagers in East Berlin picked up on the sound via John Peel’s show, broadcast on British forces' radio in West Berlin. The first self-styled punks ripped their clothes and crafted homemade patches with slogans on them—often just band names like Sex Pistols or the Clash, but also critiques such as “destroy what’s destroying you” and the logo of Poland’s Solidarity movement. Though punks ran into constant trouble with the police, they initially had few aspirations beyond drinking heavily and wishing they were in London.The first-ever East German punk concert took place in March 1981, inside the Yugoslavian embassy—something of a liberal oasis within the police state. (Two sons of Yugoslavian diplomats were in the band.) One hundred punks attended. A wave of bands sprung up in East Berlin later that year, including Planlos and Namenlos, and in the coming year they began to play illegal shows in artist studios, attics, and basements, and in their makeshift rehearsal spaces.An East German government report from 1981 pegged the number of punks nationwide at 1,000 with 10,000 more “sympathizers”—this in a country of 15 million. Authorities began to worry and the state bore down hard: Punks experienced arbitrary detainment, brutal police beatings, and invasive searches of apartments and other spaces where they congregated. The police also began to recruit informants—often by extreme coercion. Finally, before the end of 1981, the “punk problem” was eventually passed over to the dreaded Stasi, taken up by the division charged with fighting political opposition.“1981 and 1982 were like 1976 in England,” says Henryk Gericke, who sang in punk bands back then and in recent years curated a museum exhibition on Eastern punk. “You would go to these illegal parties in tiny spaces with 20 or 30 people pogoing around—your heart was in your throat when you got ready to go into one of those parties. It wasn’t intellectuals who would go on to join the literary scene or whatever. These were really hard kids, a lot of whom ended up in prison and were then ‘bought’ out of jail by West Germany.”Reacting to the violence and harassment inflicted on local punks, a few protestant churches in Berlin stepped in to offer shelter, legal aid—and free beer. The church’s umbrella soon opened over punks in other cites as well. BThis next band is called Namenlos which translated to mean Nameless. Namenlos are credited with playing the first punk show in East Germany which was called “Punkfestival der DDR” and took place on April 30, 1983 in Halle. The band was arrested and sent to prison by the Ministry of State Security which attracted a lot of attention within the punk scene and within church groups. The band was released in September 1984 and reformed and then detained again a year later. Members left the DDR and the band went back and forth with various projects. The song we are going to hear is called “DDR Staatsgrenze“ which means East German border. We all know that the Berlin Wall was the main representation between the east and the West and Namenlos were from East Berlin. This comes from a collection of recordings between 1983 and 1989. NAMENLOS - DDR Staatsgrenze (Nasty Vinyl)PLANLOS - Moderne Zeiten (Self-Released)NINA HAGEN AND AUTOMOBIL - Das, well ich so schon bin (Amiga)

Nina Hagen was the first German punk artists I ever learned about. I didn’t realize she was from East Berlin originally. At the age of four she began studying ballet and was considered an opera prodigy. Her father was a filmmaker and her mother was an actress. Her step father was an anti-establishment singer/songwriter. She went to Poland and upon her return to East Germany she joined a few bands eventually teaming up with Automobil which would become the band that she wrote the most memorable songs. The song I know her most for is a song called “TV Glotzer” which is a cover of the Tubes song “White Punks on Dope”. If you have never heard that song you should dig it up. The song I want to play for you is from her first recording which was released in 1974. Given how early this recording is the recording has earned Nina Hagen the moniker “Godmother of punk”. The song we are going to hear comes off of an album titled “Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen” which translates to mean “You forgot the colour film” and is a subtle dig at the sterile gray communist state. I chose a song off this because it is lesser known but you can see the transition in this proto punk era and East Berlin had a band that played that kind of material. Here is a song from that release called “Das, well ich so schon bin” and demonstrates the theatrical hard rock compositions that Nina Hagen was known for on her first three releases. You can see a video of Nina Hagen performing the title track of this record and they shot it in black and white to go along with the meaning of the song.SCHLEIM-KEIM were a punk band from Eufrat, which is near Leipizig. They formed in 1981 and played their first show on December 11, 1981 at the Erfurt Joahnnes Langue House, which was the first punk show Erfurt. They mostly played ecclesisatical workshops hosted by the churches. The band built their own instruments which will help explain how the sound is rough. The guitar was built with cables from a bicycle used as strings on the guitar. The drummer was able to buy a kit by selling brass knuckles to hooligans and was able to get enough money to buy pieces of the kit. Aggressive Producktions releases a split by the band which is known as the first punk record from East Germany. The split was called “DDR von unten/eNDe “ which means “DDR from below”. Otze and Klaus were brothers and lived on a farm. When the record came out the Stasi rounded them up and detained them in solitary confinement for a number of months. Otze the songer was questioned for 13 hours straight. The crime they committed was illegal contact with enemy forces and anti national agitation, which were trumped up charge because the person who smuggled the tapes out was Sascha Andersen from the band Zwitschermaschine. A great history of the band lives at http://www.killfromtheheart.com/bands.php?id=1796 . We are going to play a song from that called SCHLEIM KEIM – Untergrund und Arachie (Aggressive Producktions)ZWITSCHERMASCHINE – Untergrund Ist Strategie (Aggressive Producktions)So Zwitschermaschine were on the split with Schleim-Keim. They were instrumental in pulling this together. Sascha Anderson from the band was later revealed that he was working for the Stasi, the East German secret police and was put in to infiltrate the East German punk scene. Rosa Beton were from East Berlin. They were considered for one of the first punk releases. This recording comes from a live show that became a demo. ROSA BETON – Berlin (Self-Released)PARANOIA – Kidpunx Verpiist Euch (Robin Hood)In 1982 a band from Dresden formed called Paranoia. They played East Berlin, Karl Marx Stadt, and Leipzig. In December 1984 they recorded a cassette called “Here We are for everyone who needs a cult band”. The demo got out to Bremen and to a label called Weird System, but the sound quality was too rough so they didn’t release it. However word got back to the Stasi that this recording was in the West and so the band was penalized and needed permission to play shows. Sascha Anderson got them a regular rehearsal space to practice in, but the band wound up breaking up in 1985. In 1979 a band called Die Deutschen Kinder (The German Children) started up in Eisenberg. The band started writing songs in 1981. Most of these are rehearsal recordings. But they are pretty good. In this collection they do a punk cover of “Forever Young”, but they call it “Forever Punk” which breaks into “If the Punks are United”. It’s a clever medley. DIE DEUTSCHEN KINDER - Für Immer PunkL’Attentat were a band from Leipzig. They formed out of an earlier band known as HAU which was an acronym that stood for Half Milled Anarchist Underground. HAU started in 1982, the bassist was arrested. The band re-built from other bands at the time and then the singer was turned into the Stasi by the guitarist who was a paid informant, but this was only found out later. The band became L’Attentat and did this recording which was smuggled out to X-Mist who released it in 1987. The release was called “Made in the DDR”. L’ATTENTAT – Bürgerkrieg (X-Mist)WUTANFALL - Wann ist es denn soweit (Self-Released)“Burgerkrieg” translates to mean “Civil War”. That was followed up by a band that was one of their predecessors and actually wrote that song. The band is called Wutanfall which translates to mean “Tantrum”. We played a live track called “Wann ist es denn soweit” which gives you also an idea of the crowd and the scene. They existed between 1981 and 1985.In 1986, a band named Die Skeptiker formed. They were from East Berlin and they were part of a group of bands that criticized life in the GDR. The band is still actove today. This is from their first Studio recording called “Schreie”.DIE SKEPTIKER - Verkannte Welt (Self-Released)BUNTE TRUEMMER – Quit Holding Out (Self-Released)BUNTE TRUEMMER are a punk band from Bad Liebenwerda which is a spa town near Dresden. This is a demo they recorded in 1988. Some of the lyrics for this song come straight out of “London Calling”. This is a song titled “Quit Holding Out”. In 1988 a band called K.V.D. released their first recording called “H..I.V. Positiv” They are from Halle Germany which was the first city to hold an illegal punk festival in the GDR which took place in 1983 at the Altar of the Christ Church. KVD were a band that came out of this scene. KVD - Wir lieben das Bier (Schlemihi)ABFALLSOZIALPRODUKT - Krieg In Leipzig (Self-Released)This comes off a compilation of bands from East Germany called “No Future” that came out in 1992. The band is from Leipzig. They started up in 1989 and existed for a decade. They are referred to as punk legends. UMSTURZ IM KINDERZIMMER from Freiburg that existed between 1990 and 1994. This was taken from a collection of the band’s first two years of work found at http://hc-punx.blogspot.ca/2013/12/umsturz-im-kinderzimmer-demo-90-91-tape.html. UMSTURZ IM KINDERZIMMER - Wir sind das Volk (Self-Released)UNITED ATTENTAETER – Verräter (Self-Released)An East German band named Die Anderen were playing a gig in Berlin the night the wall came down. In the Soviet Union and Hungary and Poland, change came from the top down and represented the triumph of a reform-from-within-the-system mentality. Only in hard-line East Germany did change come from outside and below, catalyzed by grassroots protests. At the end of the day, East German intellectuals sought incremental change designed to create a society that, at base, shared a utopian vision with the dictatorship. Perfect the system, reform the system. Punk ideology, such as it was, rejected utopianism and maintained the simple, practical goal of casting off the shackles imposed by dictatorial institutions: Destroy what’s destroying you.And that’s what happened, as the scale of street protests ramped up through the fall of 1989, forcing first the ouster of longtime head of state Erich Honecker and then the lifting of travel restrictions on citizens of the GDR. The importance of the youth-oriented church-based underground in causing these changes was emphasized by recent evidence showing the East German government planned to open the wall even before the massive, million-person demonstration on Alexanderplatz on November 4, 1989.When at the end of an evening press conference on November 9, East German official Guenter Schabowski casually announced that travel directly from East Germany to the West would be permitted immediately, East Berliners swarmed to the city’s checkpoints. By 11:30 p.m. that cold Thursday night, the gates have been opened at Bornholmer Strasse and Checkpoint Charlie. Other checkpoints follow.As November 9 turned to November 10, the streets began to fill with revelers.“We partied all night there,” says Toster. “The club was right near the checkpoint at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse, and we stood there—Easterners greeting other Easterners entering the West.”“We drank with friends and wandered the streets,” says Dafty. “I went back home to bed in the morning, green in the face after what seemed like 20 joints and 700 beers.”Toster and Dafty also made a decision there and then. Die Anderen was breaking up. The wall was done and so was the band.DIE ANDEREN – Berlin (Self-Released)Runners up to last week's best of November setLEATHER – Coffee Drinkers (Self-Released)WOUNDED KNEE - Tanec duchůVACATION – Decaying (Self-Released)AUSMUTEANTS - Echo Beach (Hozac) GATTACA - Dej všem co chtějí (Contraszt! / Halo of Flies / MFL)HALDOL – Time is not on our side (Self-Released)FZ-10 – Hixteria (Self-Released)NO NEGATIVE - Feelin' the Heat (Self-Released)CENTURY PALM - White Light (Deranged)UNREAL THOUGHTS - Minds at Work (Self-Released)FOXMOULDER - Needless-Anxious (Zageme Beach)MOLLOT - Black Boots (Self-Released)

Tonight’s demo feature is from St. John’s, Newfoundland. In a review in the October issue of MRR the reviewer says the tape opens skewing towards the S.H.I.T. of current hardcore, with pogoable 1-2 drums over some dynamic guitars and reverbed vocals, tough but not thickheaded. The latter half slips comfortably into the charms of an earlier time with a more straight forward thrashing style that reminds me of Jerry’s Kids and Urban Waste in parts. The tape closes with a Rudimentary Peni cover so there’s that too. You can download the demo at their bandcamp page.ANIMAL CRIMES – Who Lied (Self-released)ANIMAL CRIMES – Aggro Culture (Self-released)ANIMAL CRIMES – Lock Down (Self-released)ANIMAL CRIMES – V.O.T.D. (Self-released)ANIMAL CRIMES – God’s Speed (Self-released)ANIMAL CRIMES – Teenage Time Killer (Self-released)

New unreleased Career Suicide songCAREER SUICIDE – Cut and Run (Self-Released)

Tonight's demo feature is SAGO who are a new local hardcore band that features Alex, the drummer from the Sofistifucks on vocals. You can hear the demo at the band's bandcamp page. SAGO – Accusations (Self-Released)SAGO – In Harm’s Way (Self-Released)SAGO – Antipathy (Self-Released)SAGO – The Throwaway (Self-Released)SAGO – Ignorant Shit (Self-Released)SAGO – Faceless Criminals (Self-Released)

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

It's rare you get to meet people that inspire you. Usually you hear a radio interview with someone or see an interview on TV or the internet, but it is rare that you get to be part of that conversation. I have been into punk for a long time and as I have gained an appreciation for the homegrown local scene I have come to recognize that the Viletones and the Diodes were some of the pioneers of that scene. That is a given, especially after reading Treat Me Like Dirt or Perfect Youth or Trouble in the Camera Club. But the first band that grew out of that scene and became part of a second wave that is described as part of the second wave is a band named the Secrets. The band got their name because they technically had formed while the Viletones were still a band. They were practising in secret. And they initially started out as a jam band. In fact when they first started playing they were known as the Secrets Review. And they shared the stage with all the folks who were singers in that first wave. They performed as a stage band and had many of the greats like Mickey Skin and Lucas and Zero come up and sing....while they worked on original material. And the material was not what you would expect from guys who wrote the Viletones and Diodes material. The key difference was that it had a back beat. This had something to do with the musicians backgrounds. Freddy had been a do wop singer back in Philly. That influenced a song like "Zoom".

John and Chris performed in R and B bands prior to their band Zoom, which Don Pyle has argued is the first punk band in Toronto to release a record. There are songs on the Secrets LP that are bar blues numbers and more new wave inspired. But the music reflected the time when bands like the Clash started toying with reggae and rockabilly. The Secrets were out of the gate early and they shared the spotlight bring the scene together at a time when it was falling apart. Gary Topp put together a reunion show for the Secrets getting Freddy Pompeii to come back for the first time in decades. Cleave told us about this reunion a year earlier and we began planning to record a session. Freddy's trip to Toronto led to him getting strep throat and so he wound up missing the session. he was hopped up on antibiotics trying to get better for the show they had in Hamilton later that week. So Chris, John, Bryant and Cleave came in to record a session but recorded the only two songs that Freddy didn't sing on. "Schoolgirl Hitchhiker" and "I'll Cry Tomorrow", which appeared on the "No Pedestrians" compilation. We also got to speak to these guys in three parts. Interview part 1, Interview part 2, and Interview part 3.

This session was recorded by Ian Wilkinson. The session was videotaped by Aldo Erdic and Candy Nichols.

Sunday, November 15, 2015

This show was our fundraising show. Kind of an all hands on deck position. With help from Candy who videotapes the studio 3 sessions and Chloe who organizes SHEXD and Mark who organized the phone room. There was muffins and cookies and stories about the last six months of EXD programming with association to how lucky we are to have a radio station like CIUT that is supportive of such nerding out on puck rock. By the way if you haven't donated to CIUT you can do so here. We started out with a game of name that tune. Mr brown of the Prophesy got his start as a rude boy DJ and so we try and find some punk or hardcore covers of a ska song and get hie to figure out who did the original. We played the Restarts cover of the Selector's "Everyday" recorded at the old studio on St. George.

THE RESTARTS - Times Hard (CIUT)

THE SELECTOR - Everyday (Times Hard) (Two Tone)

The campaign theme is "Love Your Radio" which works well in social media with the hashtag. We looked around for some punk rock radio songs that we haven;t played yet and here are a few we came up with starting out with a brand new 63 Monroe song.

63 MONROE - Fukk the Radio

HARD ONS – Radio (Bad Taste)

RENNY WILSON - Radio Receiver (Mint)

THE RAMONES - Do You Remember Rock n Roll Radio (Sire)

RADIO BIRDMAN - Do The Pop (Trafalgar)

J CHURCH - Fascist Radio (Jade Tree)

NEW BOMB TURKS – Radiobeat (Head Dip)

ANTISEEN - Radio Ruined Groove (Rebel)

GOOD THROB - Tube Disaster

Chloe has been a key organizer behind the SHEXD programming and has really started to become a part of the hosting team on the show. We talked about some past shows and upoming plans for the next installment which should be before the holidays in December.

X-RAY SPEX - I am a Cliché (EMI)

SANG - Tres Dents

SADICOS – Control (Silenzio Statico)

FIREWALKER - Don't Cross Me (Failure)

We also did a ton of special themed programming around current events, punk rock launches, song structures and so this set represents material from the Alone and Gone book feature, the Paris shootings, and the "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" sound alike set we did in the past few months. But we listed off all kinds of scene report sets and current events sets and punk fest sets programmed over the last little while.

UGLY MOTELS - Not For Me (Smash)

RIXE - Coups & Blessures (La Vida Es Un Mus)

BLACK FLAG - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie (SST)

Some things we are working on include an interview with Tony Rettman who wrote "Why Be Something That You're Not" and "NYHC", an interview with Strangled from Edmonton, and an interview with Kathryn Martin the filmaker of "Piss On You" a film about the early Winnipeg punk scene.

NEGATIVE APPROACH - Why Be Something That You’re Not (Touch ‘n
Go)

STRANGLED – White Noise (Crude City)

PERSONALITY CRISIS – Piss On You (BYO)

We are very proud of the Notes Behind the Iron Curtain so we played some of the first punk bands from Serbia, Hungary and Cuba. PEKINSKA PATKA - Bela Sljiva (Jugton)WYX - Lie Lie Lie (SPS)ESKORIA - Asquerosa Cancion de Amor (Metadona)

We also played a ton of demos in the last six months so we featured two songs from two of those demos.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Busy show tonight starting with a studio 3 session from October 6th with the Lightmares form Sudbury. You can hear the entire show above or here. LIGHTMARES – Money Woe (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Aquarian Eyes (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Like Dreamers Do (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Everything Avenue (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Soup (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Hearsay (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – These Trying Times (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Paint a Dirty Picture (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Sweat of a Hero (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – Interview (CIUT)LIGHTMARES – So Free (CIUT)Interview with Freddy Pompeii of the SecretsTHE SECRETS - Shout (Other People's Music)FUCK FIGHT OR DANCE – Pakistan (Self-Released)THE UGLY – Screw the System (Ugly Pop)ROYAL HEADACHE – Electric ShockMyanmar holds the first election in years that may get them out of this military dictatorship they have been living under. So we started with some bands from the "Anthology on Myanmar Punk". GHOST RIDER – (Tian An Men '89)THE ANTS – (Tian An Men '89)SUKARAME – GrinUNITED BLOOD - We Always Remember YouMILLIISI KECOA - Ini Bukan Arab, Bung!The last three bands are from Indonesia as the world's largest ecological disaster is a manmade fire used to clear the forests to make way for a Palm Industry.

Tonight's demo feature is a new band from Chicago reviewed in the October issue of MRR. You can download the demo at their bandcamp page. We didn't have time to squeeze in the last song.BITCHIN’ REALITY - Buzz Off (Self-Released)BITCHIN’ REALITY - W4W (Self-Released)BITCHIN’ REALITY - What Reality? (Self-Released)BITCHIN’ REALITY - $cam (Self-Released)BITCHIN’ REALITY - JungleJuice (Self-Released)

Broadcasting on CIUT 89.5FM since May 1999, ExD is dedicated to playing underground punk, hardcore, and garage from around the world. Tune in Sunday nights from 10pm to Midnight EST - live streaming audio available at www.ciut.fm Bands/labels: send us your stuff! We're looking for records and CDs to play on our show. We try and review submissions in our periodic newsletter which gets posted on this blog. Contact Equalizing-X-Distort by e-mail at equalizingxdistort@gmail.com.

SHOW LISTINGS

FRIDAY AUGUST 10th @ Doors Pub (56 Hess St., Hamilton)

PLASTIC HEADS

GILDED AGE

KLAZO

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WEDNESDAY AUGUST 15th @ Faith/Void

KHIIS (from Oakland)

TASHME

PIPER MARU

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FRIDAY AUGUST 17th @ Faith/Void

BIB

SCORPIO RISING

SILENT AGE

WINDOC

DIGEST

***FRIDAY AUGUST 17th @ Coalition T.O.

MURDER SQUAD T.O.

DESPERATE TIMES (from Halifax)

WRETCHED FOOLS

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SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 9th @ This Ain't Hollywood, 4:00pm

YER MOM

NOBLE SAVAGES

ARTIFICIAL DISSEMINATION

RED ROOM

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SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15th @ Duggan's Brewery

THE DISCARDED

THE FRECKLES

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FRIDAY OCTOBER 19th @ Lee's Palace

PUBLIC IMAGE LTD.

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SATURDAY OCTOBER 20th @ Rivoli

THE CURSE

CHRIS HAIGHT'S AD-VENTURES

THE DISCARDED

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SUNDAY OCTOBER 28th @ Scotiabank Arena (40 Bay St)

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS

If there is a show that you know about that isn't on this list, please forward it to us at equalizingxdistort@gmail.com.